GADGETWISE; A High-End Maker of Speakers Adds One for TV

By JOSHUA BRUSTEIN

Published: March 7, 2013

Sonos is no longer ignoring the TV. The company’s new Playbar begins shipping Tuesday, allowing customers to improve the sound of their televisions while also connecting them to Sonos speakers throughout the house.

The 35-inch-long speaker will be familiar to those who know Sonos’s other products. It is sleek and easy to set up, and the sound is loud and clear. Like other Sonos products, it is best controlled through the company’s smartphone and tablet apps, but the volume can also be controlled through the television’s own remote. The speaker costs $700 and also requires a bridge that connects to a wireless router.

The television has always been a major gap in the service from Sonos, which makes an Internet-connected home stereo system that allows users to stream music from iTunes, Spotify, Pandora and other online services. It has been possible to link a television to the system using either the company’s amplifier or the line-in inputs on its more expensive speakers. But these options lacked the simplicity that is one of the major appeals of Sonos, and the performance was spotty.

John MacFarlane, one of the company’s founders, said that Sonos had tried multiple times to create a better television speaker, but had killed each attempt.

You can tell why they held onto this one; the Playbar contains a few nice television-specific features. There is a nighttime listening mode, and when the user presses a moon icon in the app, the system brings up typically quiet sounds like dialogue while lowering the volume on the loud, bassy sounds that are likely to wake people sleeping elsewhere in the house. A dialogue enhancement feature works to bring out dialogue from background sounds, offsetting a common problem with television speakers.

The speaker actually contains nine different speakers, six midrange speakers and three tweeters. The sound is clearly superior to your average internal television speakers. But the real benefits will be lost to those who do not listen to their television at high volumes.

The speaker is designed to work alone, or paired with the company’s subwoofer and its Play:3 speakers for stereo sound. (You cannot use the more powerful Play:5 speakers for surround speakers). The surround sound leaves something to be desired. At low volumes the surround speakers stay silent, and even at high volumes the lion’s share of the sound still comes from the Playbar itself. Sonos users familiar with the full stereo sound from a pair of the company’s speakers will likely see the surround sound from the Playbar as a step down. But those used to listening to their television’s speakers will notice a big step up.

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.